Plus, recommendations for frightful follow-up films for a terrifying weekend
With PlayStation Store’s Halloween sale in full swing we thought it only right to highlight some of the terrifying creatures you’ll encounter across the horror-fuelled games that are currently on sale. And to whet your terror tastebuds further, we’ve offering up a chilled, gory platter of cinematic delights that’d make for perfect accompaniment to your interactive scares.
Obviously these are only a flavour of the ghoulish goods on PlayStation Store. We’d love to hear your suggestions for your favourite creature features – either to play or watch – in the comments.
Be warned, spoilers within.
1. The Alien from Alien Isolation
Run, and it’ll kill you. Hide, and it’ll find you. H.R Giger’s terrifying xenomorph has been reimagined by Creative Assembly into the worst sci-fi bogeyman imaginable. It’ll ghost you throughout your time on the decaying Sevastopol station. You can scare it off momentarily with jury-rigged weaponry; but it’ll swiftly learn how to dodge your defences.
Like that? Watch this:
Alien, directed by Ridley Scott
Releasing two years after George Lucas’ Star Wars, Ridley Scott’s 1979 horror still remains a timeless terror nearly 40 years on. The subdued but deeply discomforting soundtrack – equally distinct today as it was then – is worth cranking up the sound system or wrapping a pair of good headphones for.
Buy Alien from PlayStation Store now
2. Marguerite Baker from Resident Evil 7
Ma Baker digs into four deep-rooted fears in her time haunting you. Fearful inevitability of an unkillable, unstoppable stalker. Entomophobia as she sends a swarm of insects to consume you. Claustrophobia as you chase, then are chased down a tight, dank tunnel underground to swipe an important item out of her hands. And finally the hulking spider-like mutation that stalks you through her nest – an overgrown greenhouse.
Like that? Watch this:
The Thing, directed by John Carpenter
There are many movies with memorable mutations but Carpenter’s sci-fi spin on paranoia born from isolation is arguably still the gold standard. This 1982 opus focuses on a small group of scientists trapped in an Antarctic research with an alien shapeshifter that’s replacing them one by one. The titular creature is a thrilling lesson both in how paranoia consume friendships and how practical special effects can still trump CGI creations.
3. The Glasp from Resident Evil Revelations 2
Terrors unseen can be all the more horrifying, which is why this invisible low level enemy from a side-entry to Capcom’s illustrious horror franchise edges out its more iconic brethren. That it can be semi-seen one character – the young girl Natalia – in your controllable pair may leech some of the surprise in co-op, but go solo and play as Barry Burton and you’re limited to sound, not sight.
That you have to use a child’s directions to aim true and save you both is one of the most discomforting moments in the series.
Like that? Watch this:
It Follows, directed by David Robert Mitchell
Ostensibly a 100 minute safe-sex message encased in a stalker flick with echoes of the Ring movies, It Follows offers irresistible low-fi horror delights. A curse passed on through intimate contact sees those cursed pursued by a creature that – here comes the moral – kills on contact. The problem? The creature can look like anyone…and it’s invisible to everyone else.
4. The Nameless King from Dark Souls III
Every Dark Souls has (at least) one boss that – no matter how hard you try, how many attempts you make, how much help you summon – you just cannot kill. In DS3, that crown goes to the reprehensibly vicious Nameless King, located up in Archdragon Peak. That moniker is a misnomer – by the time you’re on your 50th attempt, you’ll have plenty of names for him…
Like that? Watch this:
Friday the 13th, directed by Sean S. Cunningham
Speaking of bad guys who are completely impossible to kill off, what better pairing for Dark Souls than slasher perennial Friday The 13th? Since the series debuted back in 1980, killer Jason Vorhees has been knocked down and got back up again more times than we care to recall. The original flick is still great fun – grab it on PlayStation Store now.
5. Swan from Fallout 4
There are echoes of what was there before even as the apocalypse’s decay eats away at the old world. Glimmers that capture the traveller’s eye. Such is the attraction to an innocuous white swan boat, its appearance at odds amidst the filth of the lake in which it floats. Beware: it’s a trap for the unwary, revealed to be both protection and lure for the hideous behemoth beneath. It’s a darkly humourous, post-apocalyptic take on duck hunters wearing birds as headgear to attract prey.
Like that? Watch this:
Hellraiser, directed by Clive Barker
Hellraiser offered up horror’s ultimate lure: a puzzle box that upon completion promised the owner entry into another dimension that’d cater to their every fantasy. The myth was a lie, the box instead pulling its victims into Hell to be tortured by a sadistic race called Cenobites. One victim escapes, but has to use his still alive lover to lure others to the box to take his place.
6. Granfaloon from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Konami’s superlative PSone platformer has a castle full of incredible creature designs. None turn the stomach more though than the boss fight found festering in the castle’s catacombs: a floating sphere consisting entirely of rotting corpses. You have to punch your way through those bodies to the creature’s core. Oh, and the backdrop to all this is a mountain of skulls.
Like that? Watch this:
Videodrome, directed by David Cronenberg
Another ’80s terror arguably besting The Thing for stomach-churning body horror, Videodrome only has a passing interest in reality. Take it as a series of nightmarish featurettes that continue a spiral of dread that offers uncomfortable commentary on the state of today’s society.
7. Night time from Dying Light
Open world exploration of a zombie-infested city built on effortless parkour allows you to run rings around the undead. However, confidence oscillates to leg-numbing fear whether it’s day or night. With the city’s electrical grid dead you’re near-blind after dark. Obstacles are again dead ends and zombies’ savagery and strength are magnified in the lack of light. It returns the fear of being trapped by the undead after two decades of cheerily braining the buggers with willful abandon.
Like that? Watch this:
Don’t Breathe directed by Fede Alvaez
With a fortune rumoured to hidden inside a house owned by a retired blind man, three teens, believing it to be easy pickings, break in one night to steal it. The wrinkle? The retiree is ex-military, has almost supernatural hearing and violently opposes any intrusion.
8. Cyberdemon from Doom
Doom’s most iconic monster has always instilled a deep-rooted fear ever since our first encounter in the 90’s entries. It’s approach was scary enough; ground-shaking stomps teasing the reveal of a titanic hellbeast with a rocket launcher for an arm. Its 2016 incarnation keeps the bulk but adds in a wider range of attacks – laser beams, multi-rocket barrages. And keeping with boss tradition, a tougher, secondary incarnation hides behind the depletion of that first energy bar, yanking you to Hell for a final showdown.
Like that? Watch this:
The Descent, directed by Neil Marshall
For Marshall’s excellent follow up to 2002’s squaddies vs. werewolves flick Dog Soldiers, the director pictured Hell as a little closer to earth, or more accurately, a mile underneath it. A group of divers lost deep underground battle dwindling supplies, cave collapses and a horde of blind albino crawlers. Brutal, bleak and not recommended for those sufferers of claustrophobia or scotophobia.
There’s also a sale on select horror movies on PlayStation Store this weekend. Check them out here.
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